Athletes with Diabetes

By David Mendosa

The father e-mailed
the International Diabetic Athletes Association as soon as he got
home from the hospital. He had just left his teenage son devastated from the diagnosis
that he had diabetes. His son was sure that he would never play sports again.

‘The things they have overcome!’

The association's executive director Linda McClure wrote right back. But the father
didn't get the message because he was back at the hospital the next day.

"He was anxious," McClure remembers. "So one of the Certified Diabetes
Educators at the hospital suggested that he call."

When he did, McClure immediately sent him an information packet. It included a list of
athletes who have diabetes as well as the organization's newsletter where he could read
about people who hike 1,000 miles or climb mountains even though they have diabetes.

Most parents and individuals with diabetes aren't as quick to respond to the diagnosis
as this father. But eventually thousands call or write.

The International Diabetic Athletes Association has almost 3,000 members in the United
States and Canada and others in Europe. It's located in Phoenix, Arizona, because the
organization's founder and president, Paula Harper, a marathoner who has diabetes, lives
there.

"Her doctors couldn't tell her what she needed to do to run marathons,"
McClure says. "So they told her that she shouldn't be running them at all."

McClure herself is also an athlete who happens to have diabetes. Her sport is cycling.

Even though the organization's home is in Phoenix, it has an international reach
through its Web site. Now in its second
year on-line, the site will soon expand to include fuller versions of articles in the
organization's newsletter that have to be trimmed in the print publication. The site will
also include a list of famous athletes who have diabetes.

Who are the most famous athletes who have or had diabetes, whether or not they were
members? When I asked McClure, she hesitated, noting that it is of course a subjective
decision.

Some of the names she mentioned were indeed unfamiliar to me. But I had no trouble
recognizing the name of Ty Cobb, one of baseball's all-time greats, professional tennis
player Arthur Ashe, and boxer Joe Frazier.

The organization's big annual event is its conference. McClure says that they are
hoping for 200 people to show up for the 11th annual conference from May 7 to 9 in Scotts
Valley, California.

A conference highlight will be the awarding of three $5,000 scholarships to people with
diabetes who excel at different exercise programs. LifeScan sponsors the awards.

Having read all the applications, McClure says that they are wonderful stories.
"These people are just amazing! The things they have overcome!"

The organization's membership includes athletes across the board, she says. "There
isn't a sport that we don't have covered with our membership."

What does the organization do for them? "First, we have good information for
people on how to start an exercise program," McClure replies. "If your doctor
recommended that exercise should be a component of your diabetes control, this is the
information you need to get started—what the complications can be, what you can do to
protect yourself, the things you need to look for when you're starting."

Other help is aimed at teenagers with diabetes, their physical education teachers, and
coaches. "We are hoping that this information will quell the worry that a coach might
have about a kid with diabetes on their team," McClure says. "We are hoping that
with this information kids won't be sidelined by coaches who have a fear of
diabetes."

I think that we can be sure that the teenager whose father immediately called the
International Diabetic Athletes Association for help won't be one of those kids who was
sidelined because of diabetes. Hopefully, it won't be long before no one will.

The American Diabetes Association originally published this article on its Web site as one of my “About the Internet” columns.

Update

Jay Leeuwenburg is an inspirational role models for athletes with diabetes. Having led a successful athletic career in the NFL himself while managing diabetes, Jay knows of the challenges all people with diabetes must face. He now lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he is a neighbor of mine, and spends a lot of his time mentoring young children with diabetes who aspire to be professional athletes. His new book is Yes I Can, Yes You Can.

Further Update

The new name of the organization is the Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association, and is no longer the International Diabetic Athletes Association. DESA is now located in Nashville, where Paula Harper lives. Linda is no loger associated with the organization. DESA has been holding many terrific conferences and meetings world wide on both the science and practice of diabetes and exercise. The organization also produces a quarterly newsletter. The organization's 2007 annual conference will be held in Colorado Springs, June 28 to 30, 2007. The conference is for anyone interested in learning about the latest in diabetes treatment and technology, fine-tuning their diabetes management with exercise, exchanging views with fellow athletes at all levels of skill, and meeting new friends you never knew before. For further information check the organization's website or call 1 (800) 898-4322.